Zemke On Top of Daytona SportBike

Henny Ray Abrams | April 3, 2009

Erion Honda’s Jake Zemke captured the provisional Daytona SportBike pole position on the track where he earned his 2008 AMA Formula Xtreme Championship.Riding with the number 1x, Zemke lapped Road Atlanta in 1:29.534 to take the top spot by just under .4 of a second. The qualifying performance was Zemke’s best of the season, though the more important Superpole awaits later in the day.Zemke clinched the FX title with a second-place finish in last year’s penultimate round of the championship.M4 Suzuki teammates Martin Cardenas and Jason DiSalvo and were next.Monster Energy Attack Kawasakis filled spots four and five, with Jamie Hacking .3 of a second quicker than his returning teammate Roger Lee Hayden. Hayden is making his 2009 debut after missing the first two races for personal reasons. Leandro Mercado, the third member of the team, qualified 15th.Michael Barnes put the first of the Bruce Rossmeyers Daytona Racing/RMR Buells into the sixth starting spot; teammate and Fontana double-winner Danny Eslick was ninth.In between the Buells came Team Graves Yamaha teammates Josh Herrin and Tommy Aquino.Factory Aprilia Millennium Technologies’ Chaz Davies qualified 10th to take the final Superpole slot.

Abrams is the longest-serving contributor at Cycle News. Over the course of his 35-some years of writing and shooting photos, he’s covered events from MotoGP to the Motocross World Championship - and everything in between.